Gikamlig
General information Gikamlig (Known by its native speakers as Beris Zgorig '''zgoˑɾiˑg, literally, "Main Speech") is the last living Salvaaic (sæɫ'veɪ.ɪk) language whose population equates to roughly 160 000 speakers. It's English rendering comes from the language's word for "friend" or "companion". Due to famine, disease, and a mass genocide of the Salvaaic peoples, its remaining speakers now only live on a remote island in complete isolation from the mainland. High amounts of distrust and overall hostility towards foreigners, combined with an advanced defence system as well as being the the only people familiar with the island's locations, makes any communication, and therefore learning the language, virtually impossible. Knowledge of the language comes from criminals exiled from the island and onto the mainland and then enslaved by nearby kingdoms. '''Notice:' Gikamlig is not going to be a very naturalistic language featuring aspects such as irregularities or what-not. That was the intentional idea, but I find that many of us do this far more than enough. The point of conlangs, I believe, is to be innovative first and complex second, and that this could be a rather exciting way of testing the possibilities of the human mind. So I am going to be inventing a number of inflections and syntax rules that I have yet to see in any real language and whether or not it is complicated will come later (I have no intention for it to be as infective as Xwarṣa. Seriously, whoever made that thing deserves a bloody medal for most elaborate stress trigger). As a result, Gikamlig will undergo very extensive alterations from time to time as I may get new ideas, but since this is my first language I am not sure if I will be too creative here or not. If that is the case, think of it as a prototype for future "creative-oriented" tongues if I ever start speculating new concepts after this one is completed. That is all. Second Notice: 'I changed my mind. This page will be patched up, but not for a while. See the language "Ekoata" for more information. Phonology Gikamlig possesses a relatively simplistic vowel system, just five plus two allophones, balanced by a rich consonantal inventory, with a total of 36 consonants, 40 if allophones are included. Unique in its inventory for a Salvaaic language is the inclusion of ejectives. Consonants * */v/, /ð/, /ŋ/, and /ɣ/ are allophones of /b/, /d/, /n/, and /g/, respectively. * /r/ exists as a vowel only. * /m/, /n/, and /l/ may also be used as vowels. Vowels */u/ and /ʌ/ become /ɨ/ and /ə/ after labialized consonants. Alphabet Phonotactics Inflections Nouns Adjectives Verbs Tense Just as the nouns, Gikamlig verbs possess strong and weak variants, the latter of which occurs when nouns or adjectives are treated as verbs [For example: noun: ''Kalig (the hand) ----> Kariçe (Will hold/will be holding). ''Weak verbs stemming from adjectives are more predictable in there definitions. For example: ''ilefuš (better) ----> ilefiçe (Will improve/will be improving)]. Strong verbs are more fusional than their weak counterparts, which are primarily agglutinated. Technically speaking, Gikamlig has no conjugation that strictly identifies any present tense. Discussing current events requires expressing one of three tenses of day: "morning tense", "noon tense", and "evening tense" ''(italicized with quotations because these are not their correct names. In fact, I have no idea if there even is one). Using whichever ''"day tense", depending on the time of day it is used, could be referring to an action that occurred in the past, present, or future of the day the discussion occurs. For example, if one were to use the noon tense during noon or afternoon, it would be rendered as the present tense; however, if it is used and it is the evening, then it is rendered as an action in the past, specifically the afternoon. Likewise, if it is the afternoon or morning and the evening tense is used, it is rendered as an action that will occur during the evening. Mood The following conjugations regard mood, of which Gikamlig inflects for three: subjunctive, imperative, interrogative, the latter of which will be discussed firstly. The interrogative mood for weak verbs is naturally simple: just add the suffix "s" after the appropriate tense. Strong verbs are more colourful in conjugation, although just as straightforward; to conjugate for the interrogative, these verbs switch the positions of the last two vowels. Following is the imperative mood, which has its own inflections, albeit of a much smaller variety. Just as in English, the imperative can be considered rude or offensive depending on circumstance, and as such a sort of "Interrogative-Imperative" ''merging occurs (again, I have no idea if there is an actual name for this). The interrogative-imperative turns the imperative into a question, and as a result it inflects exactly as the interrogative. The subjunctive has by far the simplest conjugation. In fact, it removes any conjugation at all for either strong or weak verbs. For example: "Milwafkis '''tuķ su karrda" "It was necessary that he 'build." Literally: "He had necessary ''build'.''" So the rule is to just drop the infinitive (Tuķ'es '---> Tuķ); however, if the verb has two consonants before the conjugation, such as "Lostes" (To cut), the infinitive is replaced with -il, turning the verb to "Lostil". Syntax Gikamlig's most basic word order is OVS, unless the subject is a pronoun, in which case it is OSV. Sentence structure can be rather flexible. For example, adjectives and adverbs can be found before or after their respective noun or verb, so that "Cute little dog" can be stated as either ''"Butis lilis zolig", "Zolig butis lilis", "Lilis zolig butis", and etc. Vocabulary Example text Category:Languages